Women need to develop strong coping skills, because invariably, women are attempting to run a multitude of tasks all at the one time. For women of the 21 century, juggling has become a full time profession.

Work, relationships, kids, deadlines etc. etc.- you know the drill.

But all that juggling can take its toll if you haven’t developed strong coping skills - so you can the negative stress responses at bay.

Stress on the inside can cause a multitude of damaging changes to your body - energy draining illnesses, diabetes and even life threatening cancers.

Women tell me that the major trigger points which lead to over eating usually revolve around stress.

So it is not just bad food and lack of activity lead to the overweight syndrome - the bottom line is the pressure to be the perfect self image creator, or partner, mother, achiever at home and in the work place.  Lots of pressure to "perform."

You have a choice whether to react positively or negatively to the pressures in your life.  Positive stress is good - your body loves it - and it means you are coping well and surrounding yourself with motivating thoughts and positive people. 

Negative stress is not good - it means you are not processing the pressure in a way which is beneficial for your body.  You are bottling it up, becoming frustrated, maybe angry and the negative thoughts take over.  Your immune system suffers and things can go wrong.

So what are some good coping strategies?

1. I have rule about negative people and negative thoughts - I keep both of them to a minimum.  Look around your life - do you have any people who are particularly negative influences?  If yes, then try to minimise your contact with them or just take everything they say with a large grain of salt.  As for negative thoughts, although it is important to be realistic - there is a big difference between being realistic and being negative.  Negative is going to get you no where fast.  If you can’t dig yourself out of a mental hole discuss your dilemma with a friend, a confidant.
2. Take time out to smell the roses  - laugh, touch, hug, give yourself a mental reward, sit in a sunny garden and day dream about pleasant things.
3. Take a blank page and draw a line down the middle and list out everything you are worried about.  Put your worries into two columns (i) Things I can control (ii) Things I can’t control.  The most successful people I have come across do not lots of time worrying about things they can’t control.  Things you can do something about, get a plan of action going and do it. 

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